


exceptional

by JeanSouth



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, Multi, SCIFI AU, Space AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-21
Updated: 2013-03-21
Packaged: 2017-12-05 23:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/729184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeanSouth/pseuds/JeanSouth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akashi gets more than just a return trip on a spaceship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	exceptional

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't world built in this verse/it's a spur of the moment  
> may or may not be a oneshot thing  
> everyone loves everyone  
> uhm space?? scifi???? sort of?  
> possible sidefic about haizaki

Akashi Seijuuro, as a rule, did not like spaceships. His home world was green and atmospheric, rich in oxygen and and primarily flat. The majority of its inhabitant were human, with the seafaring races that inhabited the vast oceans rarely leaving their watery homes to visit the land which had nothing to offer them. His home tended towards the quiet; much less flashier than the busy planets not far from his home, but equally as expensive nonetheless. As a noble of the planet, he rarely travelled to other ones.

Considering his distaste for flying, the situation suited him fine. The insides of spaceships on the other hand didn't suit him at all. Everything tended to be cramped, with cold floors underfoot and air almost equally as cold trying to slip under the thick spacesuit covering him. The showers were little more than pressure chambers full of chemicals and processes he had never looked into, saving the valuable water for drinking and cooking only. Coming from a water rich planet, it was even more distasteful than usual.

And Akashi Seijuuro, peer of the realm across all four quadrants and the space inbetween, did not intend to be graceful about it.

 

"Cheer up, sunshine," The captain quipped, a blond that could almost pass for human if it weren't for the slightly pointed ears, the eyes that were black where this own were white, and the slightly forked tongue that made it hard for his race to pronounce their s-tones as gracefully as the captain did. "You'll get used to flying in no time."

Truthfully, he wasn't so sure of the reassurances. The past few times he'd flown, Akashi hadn't spent the majority ill, as some ill-fated travellers did, but he'd hated every moment of it. He gave the captain not quite a glare, but more of a stern look to convey his disapproval of the nickname too. The man was, like the irises of his eyes, golden. His skin was human-esque, but slightly brozen and tougher than it looked. The black eyes were lined by long, long lashes in a face framed by soft golden hair. If anyone would be appropriately called sunshine, it was him.

"Give it up," Another voice murmured from behind Akashi though, lazy and deep, belonging to their navigator. He reminded Akashi of nothing more than a spider, if he were to be completely honest. No more fat than was strictly required covered the man, who seemed to be made entirely of strong, firm limbs spiraling out from his muscled chest. All of the skin alluringly on display was a deep brown, customary to the rock-dwelling humanoid race he was a part of, if Akashi was correct. Their home planet was rocky and dusty, with their water high and deep within the mountains they had to climb to get to. Despite the sun beating down on the planet, it was far from them and resulted in a mostly frozen planet. He assumed it was the reason for the man's constant half-way-there state of undress; even the cool of the ship likely felt like a hot summer's day to him. "You can already tell he's going to hate it just to spite you."

At that, Akashi took offense. He was a noble, used to his luxuries and couldn't help what he hated, but he was no brat. If space ships were terrible, it was through no fault of his own.

"You are wrong," He pitched in quietly, silencing them both with the sharp, commanding tone in his voice. He hadn't had tutors and teachers and more besides for years on end only to be outspoken by a few spacers and their ill-becoming arrogance. "I simply do not lack so much for a home that I enjoy drifting through the airspaces in a giant hunk of metal."

With that he turned and walked away, not waiting to listen for their reply. They had been rude first, and he refused (and simply didn't) feel wrong in his words. The trip through the ship back to his rooms was in itself short, with no more interruptions. Before the wayward captain had interrupted him, he'd been on his way back to his rooms to eat. With the amount the trip was costing him, eating well was surely a luxury he was afforded.

Reaching the sliding door to his room, Akashi slipped his fingers over the acces panel and waited for the doors to slide open with a soft hiss a moment later. Only the captain (Kise something; he saw no use in remembering the man's full name when he wouldn't need it), and the medic (who he hadn't met yet, only seen from a distance from the back, recognisable only by brilliant green hair) had acces to his rooms besides him, at both his request and as a standard safety protocol.

The room itself wasn't horrible, with a large carpet bolted to the cold floors in the middle in front of the bed secured in a similar way. It wasn't terrible, just sparse. Besides the carpet and the bed, a table and a few chairs along with a dresser and a comms unit were the only features, leaving the room stark in its chrome and black look. Its appearance gave it a cold feel, even more so than the air itself already did. 

As soon as he was in the room he stepped onto the carpet and relished it being heated by the circuits that ran under it to power the lights, the comms, and even the shower. In the past night already he'd considered moving from the bed to the carpet, but his dignity prevented him from trying. With a sigh instead, for dwelling on his predicament would do nothing for him, he stepped back to the table and sat.

Dinner was at least more spectacular, prepared by a chef he had also only glimpsed who shared his own brilliant red hair in a slightly different shade. The man had waved to their captain when he'd led Akashi by, and both of the softlooking red ears - similar to the small race of cats domesticated from planet zero - had perked up while he'd visibly sniffed the air for traces of Akashi's scent. The tail slithering out from behind him had swished curiously, and the overall effect was what had Akashi smirking to himself over the meal on his plate being a bird. A small bird, stuffed with heady cloves and herbs, glazed with a thick, pink honey from some planet only the stars knew where and served with nuts and a type of dried, yellow fruit. Despite all that, it was a bird nonetheless.

The irony of the situation didn't make it taste any less delicious. When the ship suddenly lurched to the side, he was mostly done and had only a slight of each part of the meal and a quarter of his glass of wine left. The lack of loss made him less inclined to take heads, but he still wanted to. He stood from his chair, just in time to avoid wearing the remains of his meal as it lurched again to send him flying towards the carpet again. He wasn't quite so lucky with his drink.

Every time (perhaps half a dozen; he'd been too distracted to keep a count) he tried to stand, it lurched again until it flipped upside down and slammed him painfully against the roof of his room, barely missing where the lights jutted out slightly. With the keenness of mind he'd had since being a mere boy, he rolled to angle himself above the bed, and found himself rewarded with a soft landing when it flipped rightways up again.

Within moments, he heard the fumbling outside his door of someone jamming at his security panel before the doors slid open to reveal the doctor he'd barely seen before. Up close and personal, it took no more than a few thoughts for Akashi to take him in with as much detail as he had the others he'd met so far. Being made to study races had always proven useful to him.

The good doctor was tall, and wore glasses instead of the smaller, but less versatile in-lenses. Akashi could see the glare of information flashing across the sturdy glass of them before green eyes with slitted pupils settled on him instead. In the gleam of information, the almost invisble pattern of scales under his eyes (leading off over his cheekbones, undoubtably covering a large part of his body) stood out enough to notice. It wasn't enough to give him a firm idea of race, but he had a few guesses lined up.

"Is there something you require?" Akashi asked, and raised an eyebrow as if he were standing in front of the government at a banquet, ready to defend one of his father's proposals and sway the voters with his words. Akashi was always right; his mind worked three steps ahead of the game, and he knew how to change the course. But it limited his usefulness when he would only stand for proposals he believed in; in his youngest years he'd been more agreeable, but now it was cause for clashes between them more often than not. As it was, he wasn't at a banquet; he was tangled in his sheets where they'd fallen down on top of him, and he wore his wine instead of drinking it to boot. He was sure his hair stuck up every which way.

"I was checking to see if the commotion left any of our passengers harmed," The doctor explained despite Akashi being the only passanger, looking as unruffled as if he were eating salad, if slightly tense. Akashi couldn't help but assume almost immediately that this one, even if he were to state his true intentions, would be a terrible liar. He watched him slide the glasses up his nose, and the peculiar eyes glance over him to make certain of his wellbeing. Seemingly satisfied, he turned, which without the white coat allowed Akashi a glance at the open-backed space suit and the two scaled wings poking out the back, reaching from just below the shoulders to just above the knees. That certainly narrowed down species. "You seem to be alright. I'm sure I'll see you later."

With that he was gone, and when Akashi tried to follow a while later, the door refused to budge. Looking further showed it to be locked, making him frown. As a rule, things that made him frown, apart from their first offense, were annoyances for forcing him to adopt an expression he wasn't particularly fond of. It made him look like a sulky child when he frowned.

Even though he attempted to seek contact through the comms unit, Akashi had no luck. Out of polite protocol, he gave them a few more hours to answer his call before he stood slightly straighter and went to rifle through the luggage he'd taken to his rooms with him rather than the cargo bay. Inside he found his plasma cutter easily; a weapon as well as a tool depending on the setting, and extremely illegal to own. Legality had always mattered little to his family.

He'd just set to cutting it away when the door slid open in front of him and he shut the cutter off on reflex. The gremlin in front of him was almost his own height. Overall pale, with pale blue hair and eyes to match, and smears of grease on his nose and cheek. He looked young, young enough Akashi almost wanted to pull up the ship's service records, but he was distracted by the pale blue tail holding a flashlight almost blinding him.

"Please don't destroy my work," The gremlin requested, in the tone they all had when something electronic was being harmed. From a multitude of planets (their home planet long since forgotten), they had an urge to tamper with anything that held a charge at any point of its lifecycle, or was of use to something that did. He'd heard of gremlins forgetting meals, occasions, even their partners to prioritize their tinkering. Though he'd never met any before, he'd heard a multitude of opinions that a lover so easily forgotten didn't deserve to be called that at all. "I'd hate to have to open up all the panels on this side of the hallway too."

Behind the gremlin, half the panels of the wall were indeed taken off, and some of the circuits hissed angrily, broken and, he assumed, torn by the throwing about of the ship.

"My apologies," Akashi murmured, because it couldn't hurt to appease the person who'd let him out. "My door seemed to be stuck. Maybe the circuits are gone. What happened to the ship?"

If the leap in logic bothered him, the gremlin didn't bother to show it. A sigh escaped him instead, and an expression of weary annoyance settled on his face like it was an expression he made often.

"Pirates attacked the ship." He offered, taking the flashlight from his tail - a thin thing, like a pale whip - to turn it off and not waste its charge. "It happens sometimes, but usually they back off when they see how strong our shields are. These ones kept coming, so we had to evade them long enough to channel a burst of power and outrun them."

Most of the annoyance probably came from the maintainance that would have to be done to make sure the ship was alright after such a sudden stress on its engines. With a grateful smile, Akashi patted the gremlin on the shoulder and slipped to stand next to him instead.

"I appreciate the information." He offered before making his way to the bridge, already feeling himself draw into a stiffer, more dominant pose. He didn't doubt that if the captain (more sly than his smiles would indicate, even if those smiles were full of teeth) decided not to cause an argument, the navigator would. 

As he stepped into where everyone was gathered, his presence seemed to draw attention without trying. In addition to the three men he'd already spoken to today, they were joined by a ridiculously tall male with purple hair. He had a lazy slant to him, and Akashi couldn't tell his role in the heirarchy of the ship. In fact, he couldn't even tell the man's race. Nothing about him seemed to give away he wasn't human, except a slight shift that just didn't seem right to Akashi's eyes that were used to looking deeper. Currently he was reclining in a chair, with half an eye on the giant screens.  
"You look like a man that's come to be listened to," The captain offered from his comfortable looking perch, and tilted his head ever so slightly. The vision his species had was beyond that of regular humans, but in a much different way to his own. It had always been rumored his family had blood from a long-extinct species in them, but various tests had found him nothing more than human. Personally, he'd always thought it far more likely he'd been slightly enhanced from the start when it came to his eyes, and his ancestors had merely been smart. He'd inherited the intelligence, the strategy and so much more of course, but beyond him no one knew how much his golden eye could really see. Even through the suits if he really focused he'd be able to see the intricate movements under their skin by the smallest twitch. "We're listening."

Nodding, Akashi took a deep breath and zipped his suit down to his sternum. A few murmurs of appreciation sounded, but he doubted it was for his physique. Delicate jewelry linked around his neck, and dripped downwards luxuriously. The jewels were old, but their gleam was as bright as ever. Earth jewels, as the planet had once been called, were rare to find after being lost to the ravages of time and strife. The ones he wore had once belonged to a queen; heavy, of several varieties, and the last left so large. It was worth more fortunes than anyone could offer, and he could see their minds trying to work for an answer to why he seemed to be smuggling them.

"I haven't stolen them," Akashi made sure to tell them before they could ask, and he held a hand up to stave off questions, knowing he'd tell them the full story anyway. "Recently, a great many jewels have gone missing from the museum I'm travelling to. Each of them has been earth jewels, utterly priceless, and the curator only noticed when all of them had gone. We believe they're not being sold yet, and the thief will wait until it's thought hopeless to find them before he sells them on the black market."

A slightly whistful look took over the purple haired man's face, as if thinking of how much money was involved, then remembering that he no longer strayed towards a path like that. The fact he thought of it at all was reassuring to Akashi.

"You want to lure him out with those jewels," The navigator drawled, taking in every detail of them.

The assumption was sound, but Akashi grimaced regardless.

"Yes," He nodded, and made to zip up his suit. "But the attack means they're aware the jewels are on board. They weren't supposed to know until they were in the museum where we could lockdown the entire building. I can't be sure what they'll do now."

Akashi frowned, and something in it must have looked like worry as he found himself caught in the captain's arm and his head tilted up to look at black eyes.

"We'll make sure they get there," Kise reassured him with a firm type of confidence he hadn't let slip out before. He let go, and turned to talk with the others, leaving Akashi wondering at the embrace, especially when the navigator ran hands along the small of his captain's back, and the man with the purple hair leaned in to steal a kiss. Was he just free with his favours?

Unable to come up with answers, he sighed and made for the kitchens.

Over the next week of the trip, he had more frequent meetings with the crew. The gremlin outside his door had to be coaxed into eating ("I'm sure the circuits will last while you eat, Tetsuya. Even machines need to refuel on occasion." "Well, if you insist..."), the doctor fell into a prolonged fit of interest in his eyes ("Shintarou, you've done that blood test three times. I'm as human as any other." "Maybe I'm just missing something."), and their chef marvelled at someone with a sense of taste being on board with him ("Your sense of wine to suit foods is amazing, Taiga." "I have a vintage here, and on the last stop I picked up snacks.")

It was quiet, almost like he didn't have the prospect of thieves hanging over his head for one of his most expensive items. The crew even made being on a ship almost enjoyable.

"Aka," Atsushi called out to him though (taking liberties with his name), a bit over three hours before their landing. He'd long since learned he was their security, a halfbreed from a water-dwelling race, having inherited little more than the thick skin and the magics-capability. "I have to tell you the plan."

Being told a plan instead of coming up with it was a novel idea, so he nodded. Instead of a plan he got a kiss though, and he floundered for a moment. especially considering Tetsuya was right next to them, and he'd seen them kiss intimately before too.

"Your plan is infidelity?" He managed frostily, startling a laugh out of Tetsuya. He turned to glare at him too; even if machinery was important, he ought to care if his lover was cheating.

"It's not infidelity," Tetsuya replied, barely looking up. "We're faithful to eachother."

In a way, it didn't take any more words for him to understand eachother meant the crew, not just the two of them. His head almost spun at the implications of not only Atsushi kissing him, but Ryouta's past actions skyrocketing him towards places he didn't want his thoughts to be. So he stepped back from the thoughts, and turned to Atsushi again.

"You should dress up nice," Atsushi said, and as far as plans went it was a poor one so far. "With the jewels on. Aomine says the thief won't be able to resist jumping you there, and I'll grab him."

In the shared information, he'd informed them it was a fact the thief was working for someone, but did everything alone. His strengh was stealth, following orders. In the week on board, Akashi had wondered why. Debt, he assumed, though he couldn't imagine debt not yet paid off with the value of rare earth jewels. It wasn't his to question the motivations of their thief, though. As far as plans went it still wasn't the best, but he supposed it was the best option. Between their steady crew and his strategies, Atsushi's magics, and their upper hand, he supposed it could work.

Which was how he ended up dressed to the nines and surrounded in every wind direction by Taiga, Ryouta, Daiki and Atsushi. Atsushi was behind, to keep the best eye on the situation. It took them to almost the entrance of the building before the thief struck, dropping down just a moment after Akashi noticed him and sounded the alarm. Within moments he was caught in the inescapable invisible bonds, struggling to get loose. His arms were pinned to his side at the elbow, and an invisible bond around his legs made it impossible for him to kick much.

Slightly muscled, young, probably too deep into something bad with no way out. His silver hair suited him more than the forcibly repressed agression in all of his muscles as he struggled, and the fear threatening to bubble up now he'd been caught. The authorities arrived not long after, and Akashi intended to check up on what happened later. Instantly he made a detour to the local branch of his bank to store the necklace as safely as it would ever get, and returned to the ship with eager men behind him.

Inside, kisses swept him up one by one, accompanied by murmured praises. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell who kissed not only by their voices but the kisses themselves. Shintaro, who'd never touched him before was almost shy in his kisses and had to be coaxed; Daiki plundered his mouth like it was a battle. Tetsuya seemed to sneak before his turn and take a kiss that left his lips burning with the residue of a food so spicy he hoped he'd never have to eat it himself.

Eventually, he was allowed to catch his breath, and simply looked at them for a moment, taking in what had happened.

"I like your suit," Tetsuya offered into the silence, still quiet and seemingly innocent save for the naughty undertone his words carried more and more often.

"Thank you."

"We need to take a detour before we drop you off back home," Ryouta piped up from behind him, with a look that clearly said it was a lie. "An extremely long detour. It might last a while."

He sighed, made a show of being put-upon before he turned. He couldn't remember being quite so playful in a long time.

"Perhaps it's for the best I stay," He compromised, though his mind already raced to more profitable jobs he could get them, to people who he could visit no matter where they stopped, to furthering his political career despite flying too much. Smiles broke out around him, and he was temporarily lost for words.

As a rule, he hated flying. But there were exceptions.


End file.
